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David’s forces won a great victory against Absalom’s men, and 20,000 men were killed in the battle that day. The battle spread all across the landscape, and more of his opponents were lost to the forest than to the sword.

David takes the fight into a forested area rather than staying out in the open field. Since his army is more experienced in fighting in such terrain, there is an opportunity for a smaller force to defeat a larger one. Absalom’s men (and Absalom himself, as illustrated in the following verses) die as a result of not knowing how to fight in the forest and avoid its pitfalls.

Absalom himself encountered David’s forces, and as he was riding away on his mule, the animal took him into the thick overhanging branches of a huge oak tree. There his hair was caught, and he dangled between the sky and earth as his mule fled from underneath him.

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